Mike Downey, the 56-year-old new chief of the Lawn Tennis Association, was
head of Tennis Canada for nine years and is also known to be an animal
lover.

Downey, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2007, also has a long background in sports marketing and entertainment. He worked for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, who own the Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey team and the Raptors, Toronto’s basketball team.

The father of two reportedly owns a lizard, a dog, a parakeet and a gecko. Clearly an animal lover, Downey approached the Toronto Humane Society – a group which works to prevent cruelty to animals – asking for a position.

In a 2007 interview with On Court, a Canadian tennis website, Downey spoke about his battle with prostate cancer. He had surgery, chemotherapy, seizures and a catheter. In the interview interview, Downey said: “I’m doing fine. Very well, actually.

“I weathered five weeks of daily radiation and chemotherapy with flying colours if I may say. I got to work most days.”

In the same interview he said it was his desire to enable people to play tennis all year round.

He said: “Tennis is like a religion in some countries in the world, like hockey is to Canadians. However, that doesn’t mean our sport cannot reach higher heights both in participation and at the elite, professional level … People need to be able to play tennis for 12 months a year.”

In his tenure at head of Tennis Canada, which began in 2004, the Rogers Cup tournaments saw record ticket sales year on year. In 2007 he also announced a $1-million (£630,000) investment in elite performance, the focal point of which was the construction of two national training facilities in Montreal and Toronto.

Canadian tennis has already started to see the benefits. This year they reached the Davis Cup semi-finals for only the second time in their history and for the first time in a century, losing out to Serbia.

Milos Raonic has become Canada’s first top 10 player in the ATP rankings since they were introduced in 1973, and Eugenie Bouchard, 19, is the highest ranked Canadian woman at 46 in the world.

Downey also led a campaign called “Tennis Matters” aimed at getting more people interested in and playing the game, which has raised $10 million (£6.3 million) in donations.

Prior to working for Tennis Canada, Downey was a regional President of Canada’s largest brewery, Molson.

He studied Business Administration at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, and will relocate to the UK with his fiancée Jinder when he starts at the LTA in January 2014.